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Dawkins' Infinite Regress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2008

Roger Montague
Affiliation:
Taunton, TA3 7JH, England

Abstract

In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins gives, but runs together, two criticisms of the argument from design. One is evolutionary and scientific; the other is a philosophical infinite regress argument. Disentangling them makes Dawkins' views clearer. The regress relies on the premiss that a designer must be more complex than the thing designed. I offer two comments about theists who might accept the regress, citing God's infinity. These comments defend Dawkins: but only by making him, when using his regress argument, an atheist who knows (if his “complexity” premiss holds) that God cannot exist.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2008

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References

1 Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion, (London 2006, Bantam Press)Google Scholar.